A well-known meteorologist says her career path goes a little backwards and through some storms.
Canada native Janice Dean, senior meteorologist at Fox News, can be seen on Fox & Friends during the week. She began her career in Ottawa, Canada, at CHEZ-FM as a morning show co-host, reporter, and DJ. "I always had an interest in weather, knew I wanted to go into broadcasting," she recently told Fox Weather. "I was a girl that liked math and science at an early age."
Those are two subjects she tells kids they have to know if they want to go into meteorology, but she confessed that she "did it kind of backwards."
She took radio and television broadcasting courses in school before earning a broadcast meteorology degree from Mississippi State University. Her first job was as a reporter for a radio station.
She recalled meeting a news director at the local television station who thought she would be "good on TV" and invited her to be a part-time weathercaster. "Back then, you didn't have to have the education that you have to have now, so, I kind of did weather on the side of other things that I was doing in broadcasting," Dean told Fox Weather. "When I came to Fox, they were like, 'We need a daytime weatherperson. Have you ever done the weather before?' And I was like, 'As a matter of fact, I have.'"
In 2019, she released her memoir, "Mostly Sunny: How I Learned to Keep Smiling Through the Rainiest Days," where she honestly and optimistically shares personal anecdotes and challenges like dealing with online trolls, sexism in the workplace, and her struggle with multiple sclerosis. In 2023, Dean's "I Am the Storm" was published, sharing the stories of some everyday heroes who chose to fight for what was right rather than take the easy path.
